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Hot Air

Revolting

Just a reminder for those of you hot for revolution: Things don’t always turn out as planned.

To wit: This is the day in 1793 when Charlotte Corday sneaked up on Jean-Paul Marat, who was soaking in his bathtub, and stabbed him to death.

“The Death Of Marat” By Jacques-Louis David

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Marat, of course, was one of the theoreticians of the French Revolution. Natch, he and other theoreticians began sniping at each other after Louis XVI was deposed and had his head removed for various crimes against the peeps. Marat began calling for more heads to be separated from bodies, mainly those of revolutionaries who did not endorse every letter and comma of his writings. Next thing anybody knew, France’s Reign of Terror was in full swing. Then, of course, the French Revolution collapsed of its own weight and the Bourbon monarchy was restored.

In today’s interwebs parlance, we’d call that an epic fail.

In more pleasant news, James Roger McGuinn was born on this day in 1942. McGuinn co-wrote one of the most beautiful songs of the psychedelic pop era, Eight Miles High. He wrote under the name Jim McGuinn but was more widely known as Roger. Here’s the song: